Sberbank buys out Yandex.Money stake from Yandex, becomes sole owner - SPARK
MOSCOW. July 22 (Interfax) - Sberbank has bought out Yandex's stake in their joint venture Yandex.Money, becoming the sole owner of payment system.
A 25% stake in PS Yandex.Money LLC was transferred from Yandex to Digital Assets LLC on Tuesday, the SPARK-Interfax system shows. The latter is a Sberbank subsidiary that directly owns the remaining 75% of Yandex.Money.
This transaction was part of an asset split that Sberbank and Yandex announced on June 23. The second element of the split will be the Internet company's purchase of the bank's stake in Yandex.Market.
Yandex's stake in Yandex.Money was valued at about 2.4 billion rubles for the deal, far below its market value, Sberbank said. This was because the parameters of the buyout were calculated based on a shareholder agreement the companies signed in 2013. The final amount of the deal depends on the U.S. dollar's exchange rate ahead of finalization and the closure date, the bank said.
Sberbank plans to rebrand Yandex.Money by the end of the year, changing its name.
The purchase of the stake in Yandex.Money did not require the approval of Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service, unlike the second and more expensive part of the deal. Sberbank will get 42 billion rubles for its 45% stake in Yandex.Market.
Yandex.Money is one of Russia's leading e-payment services. The company posted a net profit of 1.9 billion rubles and EBITDA of 2.9 billion rubles in 2019.
